Friday, April 23, 2010

danish taxes, no like

After I got the bad news about my Danish tax declaration I was really bummed out. It said I had to pay 9 500 DKK since I had paid too little tax throughout the year. Which I totally did not understand since I had declared my yearly salary and for sure did not earn more than that since I stopped working and left the country. But somehow they have a system that I still do not understand at all, they apparently do some recalculations to get a new yearly income of what I earned during the months I was actually registered in Denmark. In the end that yearly income was a lot higher than my actual total salary during 2009. It is just strange.

I asked several Danish people to have a look at it to see if it was correct, a Danish man at mom's job looked through my papers and did calculations and came up that it all seemed correct. Damn. With one last effort I called Skat, the Danish tax authorities, to make them explain why they calculated the way they did. I eventually got hold of a man that talked English and actually could explain it a little (although I still do not understand the system). He suggested me to send in some papers stating that I wanted them to use my actual yearly salary and not the calculated one, and another paper stating that I did not have an income when I came back to Sweden. So I did.

That was last week and I have been waiting to get a new tax statement online and the other day it had appeared. I was really hoping that the amount to be paid had been lowered, the man I talked to thought that I should be able to get it lowered if I send in those papers which I did.

I check out the new tax statement and see that now the number is only 6 900 DKK instead of 9 500 DKK, and I feel good that it got lowered at least a bit. Then I see the text in front of those numbers and I realize that it is actually 6 900 DKK that will be paid out. It is not the amount that I will have to pay, I will get that amount back. I was truly happy, this was what I was hoping in the first place, to get money back.

It is all just so strange. It is a difference of almost 17 000 DKK just because I demanded them to use my actual yearly income instead of the calculated one. And I do not understand at all that I had to send in proof that I had no income here in Sweden. What if I had worked? If it was so I would have paid taxes on that in Sweden and why should I then have to suffer for that in Denmark?

Anyway. I am happy. I will get money back and do not have to worry about paying them.

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me

Just me. Finding my way. One year living in the USA outside of New York City. Studying at JIBS in Jönköping. An exchange semester in Singapore, another one in Helsinki. On to the next chapter in Copenhagen with the completely different lifestyle of working. However, that chapter ended abruptly. Unemployment took its toll on me but I also rediscovered the fun in nail polish and nail art which kept me busy. Got a job and discovered Stockholm again after moving away at 18. As the restless person I am, I’m always longing for the next change. That restlessness has now taken me to London where I will be working and learning about the endless opportunities London has to offer. What’s my next move? Who knows. I am still just trying to figure it all out. My future.

'To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself.' - Søren Kierkegaard